Sheeting and drying machine



4 Sheets-Sheet 1 H. R. WILLIAMS Filed Feb. 4, 19,26

SHEETING AND DRYING MACHINE NW N Nov. 2 1926.

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H. R. WILLIAMS SHEETING AND DRYING MACHINE Nov. 2 1926. 1,605,491

Filed Feb. 4, 192 6 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 2 1926. 1,605,491

H. R. WILLIAMS SHEETING AND DRYING MACHINE Filed Fe 4. 1926 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 R Q $1 Q1 Nov. 2, 1926. 1,605,491

. 1 H. R. WILLIAMS SHEETING AND DRYING MACHINE Filed Feb. 4, 1926 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 I l I I N: :f' II: I T

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" Patented Nov. 2, 1926.

UNITED STATES.

HARRISON ROBERT WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SHEE'IING AND DRYING MACHINE.

Application filed February 4, 1926. Serial m. 85,865.

My invention pertains to novel and improved means for sheeting and drying wood or other pulp material, the new mechanism being especially, but not restrictedly,

6 adapted for the production of material for use in the making of sanitary and surgical pads and the like having unusual absorbent qualities.

Dried wood pulp, used as a source of supply, is soaked up in water and treated chemically so that the material which enters the machine or appliance forming the subjectmatter of this patent is in a somewhat thickened liquid condition, and in which the treated wood pulp is more or less sus- In performing the process for the manufacture of the pads specified, it is necessary to form such pulp-carrying liquid into dried sheets, which are subsequently carded or shredded into a very light and fiuffy condition, and the mechanism of this application performs such sheeting and drying function.

One aim of the new invention is to provide an apparatus andlmethod which are relatively simple and which can be used with economy so that the product can be sold at a comparatively small price.

To enable those skilled in this art to fully understand this invention and its accruing benefits and advantages, in the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, and throughout the several views of which like reference characters have been employed to designate the same elements, I have illustrated a present desirable and preferred embodiment of the invention.

In these drawings,

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary, longitudinal section through the appliance with many parts omitted;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary, horizontal section through the top portion of the casing, illustrating the underlying. mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary, vertical, longitudinal section, on an enlarged scale,

3 through the front portion only of the appliance, and it illustrates the manner of supplying the pulp material to the plurality of endless screens;

Fig. 4 is a vertical cross-section on line I H of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is an elevation of the left-hand .such screens, a number of smaller rollers may receive the wet or liquid material to end of the structure; that is to say, the end of the appliance from which the product lssues.

Referring to these drawings, it will be perceived that the novel appliance includes a framework 21 of suitable form and character enclosed in a casing 22, a portion of which may be heat-insulated, as at 23, such housing at p the top of its front end having an upright discharge flue'24.

This casing accommodates a plurality, in the present instance four, of substantially horizontali-endless screens 25, 26, 27 and 28,

extending around and over suitably-sup- 'ported, revoluble, end drums or rollers 29 and 31, and intermediate rollers 32.

To properly support the top stretches of 30 are employed for this purpose, and to prevent the lower reaches of such screens from sagging and-to direct their course of travel, rotatable cross rods or shafts 33 are used at appropriate locations.

As is clearly depicted, the forward ends of such endless, traveling, fine-mesh screens extend or project outwardly beyond those above so that such protruding portions be sheeted and dried; that is to say, the

lower screens are progressively or successively longer, for the purposeindicated.

All of the supporting end drums or rollers for such series of screens are rotated simultaneously .and equally from a suitable source of power by sprocket and chaili connections characterized 34, and which need not be described in detail because they are of .usual and well-known constructiom Also, to maintain such endless, reticulated conveyors properly taut and to remove the slack which may arise through use, convenient and simple adjusting means 35 of Well-known form are provided.

The wood-pulp charged liquid is fed into the machine through a centrally-located feed-pipe 36- equipped with a plurality of flexible pipes or tubes 37, corresponding in number to that of the conveyor screens used, terminating in discharge nozzles 38 directed to deliver their issuing contents upon the front, protruding ends of the four screens.

pliance on' an appropriately supported rod 42, bar 39 bearing and slidlng on a pair of stationary crbss rods 43 and 44, the member 41 having a downwardly extended projection 45 with a threaded aperture therethrough receiving and co-operating with a quick-pitch, multiple thread, transverse, horizontal screw-shaft 46, rotated by a drive belt 47 and its pulley 48 and bevel-gear clutch mechanism, designated 49 as a whole, having the usual intermediate clutch-collar 51 slidable into co-operative engagement with either one of the two oppositelyrotating bevel gears 52 and 53 connected together by means of the intermediate gear 54, all as will be readily understood because of known form and style.

To shift the clutch automatically, so that the bar 39 and its nozzles 38 will travel back and forth laterally of the machine to properly distribute the discharging material on the several, slowly-moving screens, the extension 45 has a depending apertured finger 55 receiving a slidable cross-rod 56 connected at one end to an upright lever 57 fulcrun'led at 58 and having a forked or bifurcated .upper end straddling a shouldered collar 59 connected to the clutch collar or sleeve 51, whereby the movements of rod 56 effect the shifting of the clutch to cause the nozzles to travel 'back and forth automatically. Rod 56 is equipped with a pair of adjustable collars 61 and 62 and associated cushion-springs 63, the movements of the finger 55, when it-approaches the ends of its strokes, being transmitted 'yieldingly through the correlated parts 63, 61, 62, 57, 59 and 51 to change the clutch connection and to start the nozzles in the reverse direction of travel.

In order to remove quickly as much moisture as possible from the wet material deposited on the traveling conveyor-screens, each is provided near its front end, just below its top stretch, with a slotted pipe 64, the slot being at the top of the pipe and just below the screen.

These several pipes are joined together by an upright connect on 65 and to a suction pump 66, so that a substantial amount of the moisture of the wet sheets on the screens is drawn off through the piping system mentioned. The drying chamber is supplied, between the upper and lower stretches of the moving screens, with steam-heated pipes 60, the heat from which further reduces the moisture content of the sheets on the screens, the

chamber being of adequate length, whereby the sheets dehvered from the screens at the discharge ends thereof are dry, these endless screens extending out of the remote endof the cas ng so that their charges ma be delivered or discharged therefrom. team is fed ,to these several, horizontally-disposed, heat radiators through a steam feed-pipe system 73, shown in Fig 5.

To prevent the escape of the heated air from the chamber through the openings of the casing through which the screens extend to permit such delivery, and to effect an efficient distribution of the heat in the chamber, an aii-blower 67 is supplied, which, by piping 68, is connected to apertured cross-pipes 69 located near the discharge end of the chamber.

Owing to a draft (natural or forced) inaugurated through the top flue 24, the air entering through the pipes 69 travels through the heated chamber in the proper direction to reduce the heat losses to a mlnimum, and its currents effect an efficient heating operation for the drying or moisture reduction in the sheets of material undergoing treatment.

Inclined discharge pans 71 are used beneath the front parts of the screens, that is, those portions on which the liquid is played by the nozzles, whereby the water passing through one screen is not permitted to reach undesired sectionsof the lower screens, the liquid, finding its way into such pans, flowing off over their lower ends on to the next lower screen well in advance of the corresponding suction drying pipe 32, whereby any pulp escaping from an upper screen, necessarily small in amount, will be deposited on a lower screen.

In order to accommodate these inclined pans, the front portions of all of the screens, with the exception of the uppermost, are inclined downwardly somewhat, as is clearly presented in Fig. 3.

To prevent pulp from clinging and adhering to the lower sections of the traveling screens, perforated, water pipes 72 are use at the positions indicated to play clean water on to the screen portions below them to wash them free of such material.

From the above descri tion it will be clear that the pulp-laden liquid is discharged on to the slowly-moving screens by the transversely traveling nozzles so as to leave sheets of wet pulp thereon, which become dried as they ,travel along, partly through the suction withdrawal of the moisture and partly through its driving 01f through the action of the heated steam ipes, the products being delivered from t e screens at the farther end of the casing.

In this way an effective application of the wet pulp to the screens is secured and an eflicient drying operation performed.

Those acquainted with this art will readily understand that this invention is not limited-and restricted to the precise and exact details of structure presented and that these may be modified within comparatively wide limits without departure from the ill heart and essence of the invention and with-' out the sacrifice of any of its substantial benefits and advantages.

I claim:

1. In an appliance of the character described, the combination of a screen, means to cause said screen to travel, a nozzle to deliver pulp-charged liquid on to the traveling screen, and means to move said nozzle across the screen during such delivery.

'2. In an appliance of the character described, the combination of an endless screen-conveyor, means to actuate said conveyor, .a nozzle to deliver pulp-charged liquid on to the traveling screen-conveyor, and means to move said nozzle across the direction of travel of the screen during such delivery.

3. In an appliance of the character de-. scribed, the combination of a plurality of endless conveyorscreens arranged above one another and each projecting forwardly beyond those above it, means to cause said screens to travel in their endless paths, and means to deliver pulp-chargedliquid on to the projecting portions of said screens.

-l. In an appliance of the character described, the combination of a plurality of endless conveyor-screens arranged one above another and each projecting forwardly beyond those above it, means to cause said .screens to travel in their endless paths, a delivery nozzle for each said screen to discharge pulp-charged liquid on to the projecting portion of the corresponding screen, and means to move said nozzles during such delivery.

-' 5. In an appliance of the character de-' scribed, the combination of a plurality of endless conveyor-screens arranged above one another and each projecting forwardly beyondjhose above it, means to cause said screens to travel in their endless'paths, a delivery nozzle foreach said screen to discharge pulp-charged liquid on to the projecting portion of the corresponding screen, and means to move said nozzles back and forth automatically across. the direction of travel of saidv screens.

6. In an appliance of the character described, the combination of a plurality of endless conveyor-screens arranged one above another and each projecting forwardly beyond those above it, means to cause said screens to travel in their endless paths,

"means to deliver pulp-charged liquid on to the projecting ortions of said screens, and trays below t e front portions of said screens arranged to deliver their contents received from the screen or screens above to the screen below.

7. In an appliance of the character described, the combination of a plurality of endless conveyor-screens arranged one above another and eachv projecting forwardly beyond those above it, means to cause said screens to travel in their endless paths, a delivery nozzle for each said screen to dis charge pulp-charged liquid on to the projecting portion thereof, means to move said nozzles back and forth automatically across the direction of travel 'o'fsaid screens, and inclined trays below the front portions of said screens arranged to deliver their contents received from the screen or screens above to the screen below.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal.

l-lAllRlSON ROBERT WILLIAMS. [1,. s.] 

